Even though I loved what I heard, I’m still not sure HomePod is the speaker for me. But I’m going to try it.

In my house, we may all own Macs and iPhones, but we listen to Sonos speakers and talk to Alexa. I’ve been a die-hard Sonos fan since 2014, and Alexa came into our lives somewhat accidentally, after I had to test an Echo Dot for work. Regardless of their entry into my life, I now rely on both for my day-to-day interactions.

I wrote off Apple’s HomePod after its delay, largely because I’d just purchased a Sonos One and I didn’t see the need for a doubly-expensive speaker that wouldn’t integrate with my current network. But after having the chance to listen to HomePod, I’m starting to waver.

For one, the HomePod sounds incredible, especially given its close-to-Sonos-One footprint. It’s the speaker’s sound — and the way its A8 chip separates both channels and frequency to deliver incredible audio — that moved me from the “niche product I’ll never buy” category to “I want it for my living room.”

And while I’ve used Alexa for almost two years, I don’t love the privacy I give up by letting the service log every query I make (and tie it to my Amazon ID).

But HomePod isn’t perfect. It won’t support multi-room audio at launch — something my Sonos speakers have done for years — nor can I use Siri to launch a Spotify playlist, if I’m so inclined. Maybe the worst offender? Siri on HomePod isn’t launching with multiple timer support: It’s still limited to just a single timer. Though you can set multiple alarms instead, it’s just not the same when you’re cooking. (Heck — that skill alone sold me on Alexa after just a day with the Echo Dot.)

Needless to say: While I’m much warmer on HomePod than I was before listening to it, I’m still not sure if it can serve as a proper replacement for my Alexa system.

Lucky for me (and you), Apple offers a no-questions-asked 15-day return policy for most of its hardware. Whether you want a private HomePod listening test or you (like me) are curious to see whether it can handle everything you’ve used other assistants for, it might be worth ordering the speaker from Apple’s website. Short of you breaking the thing, you can return the HomePod online or to any Apple Store if you decide Siri doesn’t strike your fancy or it doesn’t blow you away with full-room sound.

I’m of course hoping that once in my home it wows me the way it did when I first listened to it. All the same: If it doesn’t, it’s nice to know that I can give it a solid try on my terms — and send it back to Apple for someone who might love it more if it doesn’t work out for me.

Facebook vice president of messaging products, David Marcus, posted an update on Messenger today, outlining the app’s successes in 2017 and hinting at what the team has planned for 2018.

In the post, Marcus mentioned that the Messenger team knows the app has become “too cluttered.” Because of this, they have planned a big update for 2018, which will introduce a simplified and streamlined experience for Facebook Messenger (via The Verge).

Over the last two years, we built a lot of capabilities to find the features that continue to set us apart. A lot of them have found their product market fit; some haven’t. While we raced to build these new features, the app became too cluttered. Expect to see us invest in massively simplifying and streamlining Messenger this year.

Marcus didn’t specify which parts of Facebook Messenger might be removed in the streamlining process, but he did mention a few aspects that the company will continue to focus on in 2018. These include doubling down on “visual messaging” — i.e. gifs, stickers, videos, and images — and evolving customer service into a “Customer Care” experience so that users can easily contact companies to have basic troubleshooting and other questions answered.

USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan explains why the International Olympic Committee’s ban was the right call on the latest episode of Recode Decode.

Heading into the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, all eyes were on how the International Olympic Committee would react to 2016 revelations of state-sanctioned doping among Russian athletes. And to the amazement of some, the IOC followed through, formally barring Russia from the event fewer than 10 weeks before it was set to begin.

Talking to Recode’s Kara Swisher before that momentous ban, USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan was pessimistic about its chances. But she explained why it’s the right call.

“There are people out there to this day who came in fourth or fifth, who should’ve been second or third,” Brennan said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. “They didn’t get the medals, and if they get them — occasionally they do return gold and give it to the right person — it comes in a FedEx box and they open it up at home in their foyer. ‘Oh, huh, I’m a bronze medalist.’”

“Here’s the difference: When Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones and all those other scoundrels cheated and got caught, they were doing it in defiance of their national Olympic committee, the U.S. Olympic Committee,” Brennan said. “When all these Russians were cheating, they were doing it in compliance and cooperation with their national federation.”

“What the Russians did would be the equivalent of, probably, Barack Obama knowing, but certainly the FBI director knowing, the CIA knowing, the U.S. Olympic Committee all in cahoots with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, probably members of Congress, all of them,” she added. “The only way to stop this is you kick ’em out. You take them away from the one thing they want.”

If you like this show, you should also sample our other podcasts:

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Too Embarrassed to Ask, hosted by Kara Swisher and The Verge’s Lauren Goode, answers the tech questions sent in by our readers and listeners. You can hear new episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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